-Our next guest is an Emmy-nominated actor
you know from shows like "The Path" and "Hannibal."
He stars in the 21st season of "Law & Order,"
which airs Thursday nights right here on NBC.
Let's take a look.
-Find out what they were talking about.
-Tried. She made herself part of the defense team,
filed an appearance at the arraignment.
-Okay.
So let's work with what we have.
You've tried cases without motive before.
-I have, but not first-degree murder
and not when the defendant was a global icon.
-Just tell the jury what you have
and what you don't have.
-Please welcome back to the show our friend Hugh Dancy, everyone!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Welcome. -Thank you.
-I was telling you backstage, I am --
I'm so happy to have this franchise back.
It's so nice to see Sam Waterston.
To be in a room with him must be just a joy.
-It's incredible. It was amazing
being in that room that you just saw with him
when he walked back into it after 11 years, I'm gonna say?
-Yeah.
-Which I can only assume that his mind was melting.
But you just saw Sam's face.
You know, impassive, kind of... -[ Laughs ]
-Yeah, incredible. -And this is --
You know, the last time you were, I guess,
probably on an NBC show, you were FBI profiler
Will Graham on "Hannibal."
And a fantastic show. [ Cheers and applause ]
And maybe you would think --
You're currently playing an A.D.A.,
obviously dealing with New York crime.
And yet maybe easier than what Will Graham was dealing with.
-Nobody is trying to eat me.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-That should be the tagline. -That must be a nice departure.
-Yes, it is. -"If you enjoy Hugh Dancy
and don't want to see him get eaten,
this is the show for you, the new 'Law & Order.'"
-But I'm not sure that people did want to see that.
I don't know. [ Laughter ]
But it feels like a net positive.
-Yes, it does feel like a net positive.
And you get to film in New York City.
-Yes. -And you have obviously
done theater in New York City. -Mm-hmm.
And again, I think one of the joys of watching "Law & Order,"
especially over 21 seasons, is you saw so many
incredible stage actors populate that cast over the years.
-Literally every stage actor. -Yeah.
-I mean, I've -- Again, Sam says this.
He feels that Dick Wolf should get a Tony
for his services to the theater. You know?
Everybody I've worked with has been doing --
Except for me, so now I feel --
-So, this is a big deal for you to finally --
to finally make it onto a "Law & Order."
-Yeah. As somebody who's been lucky enough
to work in the theater but also somebody who lives here...
-Yeah.
-...it feels a little validating, for sure.
-And your wife, Claire Danes, has been on "Law & Order."
-I think I'm right in saying it was her first job.
-It was her first job? -Yeah. She played a murderer.
-Did she really? [ Laughter ]
-Yeah, yeah. -Good for her.
That's a really good first job. -Yes! It is.
-I feel like the best they would ever give me on "Law & Order"
is the jogger who sees a body.
[ Laughter ]
-You could be on the jury. -I wouldn't --
I'd want to be the jogger. I want to be the jogger
who's talking to another jogger about some real, you know, B.S.,
and then, all of a sudden, it's like, "Oh, my God!"
[ Laughter ] -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Hard cut, then I'm talking to someone.
I'm like, "Yeah, I was just jogging."
-In the background, talking to you.
-Now I'm in the background, overacting.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
I mean, again, somebody has to do that job, you know?
-Somebody has to do that job.
Well, you know Dick Wolf now. Put in a word for me.
-Done. -Thank you.
I would imagine it's also really cool to shoot on --
You know, the New York City streets are your set.
-Yeah. I mean, the advantage --
I play, as you say, the A.D.A., so I'm prosecuting.
I'm in, like, the second half of the show, mostly.
Lawyers, it turns out, are not the ones
that go out into Central Park at midnight.
-That's true. -Which is great for me.
-Yeah. -It's --
That's Anthony Anderson and Jeffrey Donovan.
They're out there doing that good stuff,
and I'm mostly in the studio.
But it's great -- Just again, the New York --
Just before I came here, I was in an Italian butcher's,
and a woman turned to me and said,
"You're doing great on 'L&O.'"
[ Laughter ]
And I thought she said, "You were great on the 'Ellen' show."
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And I thought to myself -- This is like an hour ago,
and I thought, "I was great on the 'Ellen' show,
but it was in 2003."
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-So that's a long memory she's got.
-I wish you'd overreacted and said, "I've waited so long..."
[ Laughter ] -Exactly.
-"...for someone to give me that feedback."
-"Thank you, madam!" [ Laughs ]
-You're also in the new "Downton Abbey" film.
That, I guess, is a little bit more like your roots,
a little bit more costume drama,
which you did back in the early days.
Was it nice to get back in those sort of British period pieces?
-It was. It was --
That kind of dropped out of the sky for me, post-pandemic.
So there was a kind of feeling of massive relief, honestly,
that I was working, but a strange feeling
that I had been transported back 20 years
in time in my own career. -Yeah.
-But then, you know, to find myself in that stately home,
surrounded by all those icons, you know, sipping tea
and kind of gossiping in between takes, was amazing.
-Your boys are 9 and 3.
Do they engage with your work at all?
Is there anything of yours that they care about?
-Well... [ Laughter ]
I mean, that's a tough question, Seth.
-It's a tough age. -Yes, yeah, it is.
And the youngest one probably doesn't really know enough
to care, and the oldest one --
Well, actually, the oldest one, I took him -- I went to --
They screened today. The people who made it
screened "Downton Abbey" for me this morning.
So before the Italian butchers, that's where I was.
And I took him with me -- boldly, some would say --
because I didn't know what his response would be.
But he came to love it.
-Oh, that's really sweet. -Yeah.
-That's all you can ask for. -He turned to me
in the middle of the screening and he said, "This is good."
[ Laughter ]
"You're good." [ Laughter ]
"You're an actor." [ Laughter ]
The last bit I'm still mulling over.
-Yeah. -'Cause it's accurate.
-Yeah. -But it's also quite neutral.
-The thing that just gave me goose bumps is,
I feel like that would be the dream
I would want my father to turn to me and say.
And I'm like, "Wait. Does that mean you get
a new father that's just a young one?"
-It was so validating. -Yeah.
-And then, at the end, I said -- and this is gonna seem desperate
because it probably was, but I said,
"So, what was your favorite bit?"
And he said --
Honestly, he said, "The bit when they hired you."
[ Laughter ]
Which, again, could have been a plot point
in the movie when you see it.
But it was ambiguous. [ Laughter ]
"Me, too!" -"We just need you to work, Dad.
We just need you to keep working."
Hey, congratulations again on the show.
It's so nice to see you. That's Hugh Dancy, everybody.
"Law & Order" airs Thursdays at 8:00 p.m.,
here on NBC. And "Downton Abbey: A New Era"
will be in theaters on May 20th.